Prey//IV (stylized as PREY//IV) is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Alice Glass. It was released on 16 February 2022 by Eating Glass Records. It is her first collection of solo material since the release of her self-titled EP released five years prior. The album title and track listing were revealed on 19 November 2021. The release of the album was preceded by four singles, "Suffer and Swallow", "Baby Teeth", "Fair Game", and "Love Is Violence". To promote the album, Glass embarked on a 15-date tour of the United States, the Traumabond Tour, from the 7 September to 31 October, 2022.
Background
Following the release of her self-titled EP, Alice Glass released a statement in October 2017 which accused former Crystal Castles bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual abuse during her tenure with the group. Following this, Glass was subject to a defamation lawsuit from Kath (which was later dismissed, with Alice winning $21,000 in legal fees) and online harassment. "Everything I did, it felt like there was a lot of people that wanted me to crash and burn and kill myself," she later recalled to DIY. "It's horrible, especially this picking of sides, because people label you a liar for attention and that's that. Seeing all these fans that you've met in person now harassing you online… It's just like, I don't know… surreal…"
After releasing a few more singles through 2018, including "Cease and Desist", "Mine" and "I Trusted You", Glass decided to stop releasing singles and instead release a new record to channel her experiences. "[I] felt the pressure to have a record speak for my experience, rather than having songs and singles here and there that I was working on at the time. I wanted [Prey//IV] to be a statement."
Recording
The album was produced by Jupiter Keyes, formerly of the noise rock band Health, and who also helped produced Alice Glass's self-titled EP. "I've always loved Jupiter's production. He has an ability to make sounds sound really sad," she told Dork. "I definitely like sad music, but I don't listen to it all the time. I like to dance when I'm sad." The duo worked on the songs together in their basement, which is listed in the album credits as "Misery Labs".
Glass had written hundreds of songs since 2015, but only begun to narrow it down and begin recording the album in 2018. Most of the album was written prior to her therapist getting her started on medication for depression and anxiety in 2021. "It was a really dark time", Glass reflected to The Sydney Morning Herald. "I was numb and catatonic, going through the motions and routines, figuring out why everything was so f---ed up, and [understanding] that it wasn't my fault was a huge step." Glass intends to release more of the music she and Keyes have recorded in the future. "I'm just going to open the floodgates, honestly, because we [Keyes and I] have so many songs."
Composition and lyrics
Prey//IV's lyrics mainly have themes of domestic violence and abuse.
"Love Is Violence" was described by Glass as a song about manipulative and toxic partnerships. "Any person who uses their partner's 'love' to control, use, and hurt them is using one of the most cruel and disgusting manipulative tactics in human experience. Disguising power struggles and calling it 'love', it's a form of violence against a partner. I want to help people to see those red flags and encourage them to remove themselves from those types of toxic situations", Glass explained in a press release.
"Baby Teeth" was described by Glass as "...probably the darkest and most hopeless track on my record, but it sounds misleadingly hopeful." The song itself is about "embracing despair. It understands that violence against the vulnerable is inevitable, and it probably always will be."
The song "Fair Game" is written from the perspective of an abuser, and she used real quotes from her own abuse in the lyrics. "It's a song made of actual phrases that were used in repetition to gaslight me, to intentionally keep me confused and weakened", Alice Glass explained in a statement upon the song's release. Glass described the song's creation as "cathartic". She later disclosed that the song was released at the suggestion of late Scottish producer Sophie, who wanted to make a remix of the song.
Title and artwork
In an interview with NME, Glass stated the album title is directly a reference to her previous band, Crystal Castles, and the numbering system on their albums (II) and (III), with Glass considering Prey//IV to be her fourth album; "Look at the writing credits throughout the years, and I am the most consistent songwriter on the CC records."